Lysistrata Reimagined is this year’s UoT Opera Student Composer Collective production.  It’s a setting of a libretto by Michael Patrick Albano loosely inspired by Aristophanes’ Lysistrata.  In fact about all of Lysistrata that remains is that it’s in Greece, there’s a sex strike to stop a war and a couple of character names are retained.  But then, as the first scene tells us, nobody reads that stuff, or remembers it, anymore.

So, we are in a city.  The men, up to now gainfully employed making triangular wheels, writing romance novels or teaching interpretative dance decide that “war” is a good thing and they want one.  Lysistrata who is, apparently, the leader of the local womenfolk isn’t so keen and persuades the ladies to withdraw their favours until the men drop the war idea.  One woman, though, Lampito (inevitably), rather  likes the war idea and kits herself out for it but doesn’t really convince anyone else.  With deadlock reached after three weeks Lysistrata calls on the local (female) sage for help but all she gets are “a string of proverbs and useless clichés”.  But then a miracle happens.  Overnight some people change gender and some realise it’s just a social construct.  So now there’s nothing particularly masculine about war which persuades the boys (or whatever they are now) to drop the idea and normal relations are resumed though one suspects in greater variety.

There are a bunch of jokes along the way.  The most domestically absorbed female character is called Suburbia, the war leader is Alexander and so on but I’m not sure there would be enough there to sustain a whole opera, even a ninety minute one acter, if it wasn’t for Mabel Wonnacott’s lively and imaginative production.  There’s very good use of shadow projections on a sheet with a cool “Greek vase painting” feel to them.  It’s fast paced and doesn’t try to be serious.  The comic timing is good.  So it’s played, rightly, as a farce with all the elements needed to pull farce off.  This was all done with minimum resources as, apparently, the MacMillan Theatre is temporarily closed and we were in the Fleck Dance Theatre which has basically no scenery handling capacity.

Musically it’s quite interesting.  There’s no pit at the Fleck so a minimal ensemble of string quartet, double bass, percussion and keyboards, with Sandra Horst conducting, was positioned to one side of the stage.  I imagine this necessitated a fair amount of last minute rewriting by the composers who were likely preparing for a bigger band!  Despite there being eight composers there was a surprising congruence of style (apparently there was no conferring!).  That style was highly competent and well suited to a comic opera.  It wasn’t boring but it didn’t upstage the singers.

It was very much an ensemble production.  Essentially the whole UoT Opera masters programme was on stage and the only person who had a stand out role was mezzo-soprano Ellita Gagner as the title character.  She’s on stage a lot and sang with even, controlled, tone and acted well.  There were notable cameos from a couple of others.  Kcenia Koutorjevski, another mezzo, was splendidly deadpan as the essentially useless Sage.  She has a really nice voice.  I could have stood to hear more.  There was also some “good fooling” (as Baldrick might put it) from Aemilia Moser as the impetuous Lampito.  But, in the final analysis, it’s an ensemble piece and everybody, including the band, played their part in making it a fun show.

If you have never attended one of these Student Opera Collective shows you might want to give it a go.  UoT Opera’s is the only one of its type and I’ve enjoyed all the ones I’ve been too.  Often a bit goofy perhaps but loads of fun!

Production photos if and when.